Tag: Communication

Negotiating pay is a difficult situation when offered the job of your dreams. While the job description may check all of the boxes, compensation is also a major determinant in whether you should accept the position or not.

There is a certain threshold that employers will withstand when in the counteroffer stage of hiring. By doing your research and recognizing the market compensation wage bands, you will set yourself up for far better success than by countering the future of your career blindly. Trust the process as you think about negotiating an offer once it has been presented. Seek counsel from a professional to guide and lead you through each phase of the negotiation.

When countering the offer, focus on why you want to join the organization and what is important to you at this stage of your career. There are other benefits can be included as part of the compensation package which can include, commute time, work-hour flexibility, job responsibilities, family support, and ability to contribute in the strategic success of the company. Focus on how your dream job can transform more than just your bank account.

Countering what you feel is deserved can be effective when done properly. If conducted correctly, counteroffers can provide better benefits, incentives, job security, and ultimately pay for a job that was already a dream to begin with.

As the structure of an organization matures and employees begin to mature and transition from their initial roles, succession planning becomes a key piece in ensuring the organization will continue to run smoothly.

Be proactive in outlining a succession plan that works best for the culture of the company. Set aside adequate time to identify the key traits needed for another leader to fill the soon-to-be vacant position. Even if a transition is not expected immediately, proper timing and planning make a difference in the midst of any occupational shift.

In the spirit of timing, this offers an excellent opportunity to provide training to other employees that may be interested in leadership roles down the road or perform trail runs for potential candidates whom may be closer to the level of accepting more responsibility. Opening up the chance for employees to actively seek leadership roles and identifying top performers, organizations pave a greater road towards smoother transitions.

Through training and vetting, it is important to relay the shared vision of the organization. Engaging in transparent strategic conversations will not only help develop a greater vision for future success inter-departmentally but it will also magnify the strengths of top-performers.

Once an internal succession structure is identified, the process should be mirrored and appropriately transitioned to fit the hiring strategy, establishing the traits valued in top-leadership parallels that of new additions.

After deciding to forge a new career path, resigning from the current position is naturally one of the next steps. As an executive, the utmost importance falls on how their departure transpires and how it affects the company in the long haul.

Appropriate transparency and confidence will define how any executive leaves their current role. Naturally, as a leader departs, followers begin to raise suspicion. Being confident in the transition without making vague excuses will alleviate that worrisome feeling that may arise in employees. The reasoning behind such change should be professional and future-centric rather than focused on the specific instances that led to the transition.

An in-person announcement to the organization is the best way to break news for any leave. Falling in line with transparency, this method allows current employees the chance to ask questions, witness organizational support and positivity and, most importantly, observe the raw emotion that is paired with any goodbye. No matter the circumstances, good or bad, executives will be able to better gauge the reaction of their team and quash any potential rumors or “this is what I heard” scenarios.

Leaving the company in good standing should be at the forefront of any executive’s mind after deciding to depart from their current role. While two weeks’ notice may be the norm, more time may be needed to ensure adequate measures and plans are in place to set the company up for future success. Whether it be two weeks or two months, a proper go-ahead plan should be established and communicated to support the company that such executive was once a part of.

Having the opportunity to shadow senior leadership when beginning a career or transitioning to a new position provides countless benefits, specifically, the resources and skillsets that are available in a shortened timeframe. But, why choose shadowing versus another on-boarding system when welcoming a new employee?

Shadowing is most important when the position is best learned through seeing or doing. The new hire is able to take in a plethora of information that, if trained through a different method, might be overlooked or not mentioned. It provides a “hands-on” approach to a position that may require a “hands-on” mindset.

The ability to learn firsthand from leaders who have forged their own path to success is second to none. The time spent with senior employees opens to the door to understand the ins and outs of the company culture, fine-tune and continue to develop professionally, and gain expert insights into the business. Shadowing also expedites the on-boarding process as new hires begin to acquaint themselves with the business sooner.

Job shadowing provides a behind-the-curtain look at the expectations of job duties, key deliverables needed, and the interactions between coworkers and peers and coworkers and senior management. This provides an excellent chance for senior management to recognize if processes, job descriptions or culture needs to be restructured or reevaluated.

Making a career change can be difficult for anyone. However, the dependence of a transition for an executive weighs on the prospective employer and their future with the company.

Personal growth remains to be the most significant factor an executive considers when considering a career change. With an emphasis placed on continual learning, most executives search for opportunities that allow them to expand their skill set rather than chasing a title advancement.

And like any other searching candidate, executives also rely on the opportunities that the potential company offers. When given a chance to stretch their skills and abilities to new levels, allowing for them to see a significant change, executives are far more willing to shift to that new role than stay complacent in what they know.

Environmental factors come into account during the decision process, too. Is a shift in career going to make a positive impact on work-based culture? Will a transition allow for greater responsibility and oversight of a larger team? How will this position fall into the entirety of the organizational success? These questions all play a factor in an executive deciding whether to make a move or not. This element is mostly dependent on the overall goals of the executive candidate and the current state of their ongoing position.

While direct compensation does not play a significant role in an executive move, the financial stability of the organization does. If the prospective company shows greater return and less risk in company sales, work hours, employee turnover, mergers and acquisitions and competitive advantage compared to their current position, a top-level executive will realize those benefits and make the move into a new career.

As a recruiter, one of the most important aspects of the job is keeping candidates interested in the opportunity. Every so often, a candidate goes dark – all communication stops out of the blue and when this happens, it feels as if all progress that has been made has been lost.

What can be done on the recruitment end to alleviate the stress that comes when a candidate goes cold?

Emphasize the importance of communication and set deadlines for response time. It is important to begin the relationship through various methods of communication; if the candidate does go dark, a call to “check up” is routine rather than desperate. While establishing the relationship, understand how active the candidate is in their search and their timeline to transition into a new opportunity.

Gain their respect and trust. Guide the candidate as an advisor in their search, helping steer them in a direction you believe to be the best move for their future. A candidate is far less inclined to go dark if they trust who they are talking to and have faith in the system.

Should you execute these tips, but to no avail, run into a candidate where all communication has stopped, you must then evaluate if the candidate is worth the time. Should you change gears and move on to a candidate that would be more than eager to be given the opportunity? You may begin to spend more time trying to connect with a lost connection rather than building a relationship with a zealous one.

Confidence within the workplace is key to a successful career, and a portion of such confidence is the power that comes with knowing ones true value. Social interactions, energy and attitude play a major part in how people interact with one another in the workplace. Positive interactions are driven by value-led thoughts.

Believing that you have what it takes to make a powerful impact in your role and not accepting less than what is deserved solidifies the understanding of your self-worth. Have the confidence to say what you want because you know it is earned but also, have the humility to realize unrealistic expectations.

Evaluate who you are and who you want to be, while celebrating your accomplishments. Prioritizing your commitments and personally valuing who you are will translate into value in any situation.

If you ask people around you to define leadership, chances are there will be a large variety of answers. Words like coach, power and respect are often riddles in the responses but the same general tone to describe leadership is someone with influence.

Oftentimes though, people mistake leaders for some in high ranking positions when leaders can be found even in the most entry-level positions. The key is fostering those early leadership skills to support a possible rise in position status within the company.

The most fundamental foundation to any strong leader is trust. When times get tough, it is important that employees have trust in their leader to be the calm in the storm. Establishing an environment that allows for vulnerability fosters the ability for employees to think independently with the notion that failure is okay and encourages bridging the gap between the executives and the team they manage.

Communication goes hand-in-hand with trust. Employees need to trust that they can communicate with their leader. Setting forth a pragmatic point of view will challenge employees to think about how they can improve on mistakes made and enable them to creatively work to find solutions in the future. Disclosing noncritical company information, both successes and failures, provides employees with a sense of belonging as they begin to understand their role through both a micro and macro view of the company.

The connotations associated with “employee turnover” are often negative. From lost costs to disruption in an organization, employee turnover does have significant risks that test the strength of a company and its structure.

What is often overlooked is the benefit that employee turnover may bring to the organization.

Zappos, an online shoe and clothing store, has been widely praised for its mindset surrounding employee satisfaction. In 2015, the company began offering its employees exit payments, an incentive given to those who were interested in the company but decided it was not a right fit for them. This incentive lead to approximately 14% of employees accepting the offer.

While some turnover is encouraged, the importance of organizational agility is two-fold. The ability for employees to manage their employment satisfaction translates into greater success, for those who stay with the company have a mindset committed to the company’s growth and future. Wiith the possibility of sporadic, unplanned position vacancies, positioning the business model to react and absorb any negative repercussions takes time, commitment and understanding.

It is crucial to create a culture that recognizes employee turnover is not always negative but rather something that can offer a positive shift in skills, mindsets, and motivations for the workforce, ultimately lending to the success of an agile and proactive company.

Performance reviews – a historically dreaded time in the office. Understanding how to take advantage of the review process and what personal and organizational improvements can be made will help both managers and employees alike to develop as an employee and contribute more to the company.

Meetings between manager and employee allows for the construction of individualized plans geared toward success. Not only do these conversations open a clear line of communication and transparency but they align company and employee goals and strategy. Setting goals that are smart, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (S.M.A.R.T.) allows employees to prioritize their work in the coming months based on personal and company goals.

And while performance reviews provide managers and employees the chance to speak openly about position performance, no review should come as a surprise. Employees should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses beforehand allowing the time allotted for a performance review to be focused on goals to improve or further success. The categories that are being evaluated must be clearly outlined to establish a clear line of expectations.

After the performance review, managers should take the time to review their notes that were taken during the meeting. Rather than stuffing the file into a folder and storing until the next performance review comes up, taking the time to map out a timeline of the milestones that the employee must hit to be considered successful is important to continue departmental success. This practice will not only provide managers the ability to map out their expectations, but it will also provide an insight into practices within the office that may require more focus.

One-on-one reviews are great to establish relationships between managers and employees; however, creating a system that allows the department to anonymously submit general feedback and personal role evaluation allows the opportunity for staff to identify micro-level needs regarding professional development.